I recently posted an image of St Martins-in-the-Fields that I had taken with +/-2 auto bracketed exposure, but not having any HDR software I ignored the over-exposed image, then used PSE to pull as much detail as I could by lifting the shadows in the straight exposure, and added the window detail in from the under-exposed shot by using a layer mask.
About an hours work overall:
St Martin-in-the-Fields by AlexR!, on Flickr
I then went away to look into HDR software, and decided that I would probably give Aurora a go (the standalone version for £29 seemed an easy risk). Coincidentally I then opened up a previous edition of Digital Photo mag which I hadn't got around to reading and it offered a freebie Photomatix HDR plug-in. So I downloaded it and ran it against all 3 of the RAW images. The following image was the closest to what I wanted of the various template options, straight up with no editing or fiddling, overall about 5 minutes work (once I'd learned the process):
St Martin-in-the-Fields Photomatix HDR by AlexR!, on Flickr
Any thoughts on which is better? I'd say my original version has slightly richer colours, but I suspect that if I spent more time fiddling with the Photomatix version as my starting point I'd get a better solution yet. But I think I'll still give Aurora a go anyway, on Ian's recommendation.
About an hours work overall:
St Martin-in-the-Fields by AlexR!, on Flickr
I then went away to look into HDR software, and decided that I would probably give Aurora a go (the standalone version for £29 seemed an easy risk). Coincidentally I then opened up a previous edition of Digital Photo mag which I hadn't got around to reading and it offered a freebie Photomatix HDR plug-in. So I downloaded it and ran it against all 3 of the RAW images. The following image was the closest to what I wanted of the various template options, straight up with no editing or fiddling, overall about 5 minutes work (once I'd learned the process):
St Martin-in-the-Fields Photomatix HDR by AlexR!, on Flickr
Any thoughts on which is better? I'd say my original version has slightly richer colours, but I suspect that if I spent more time fiddling with the Photomatix version as my starting point I'd get a better solution yet. But I think I'll still give Aurora a go anyway, on Ian's recommendation.
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